DL and VS Price Difference for Same Flight?
 

Hi -- trying to book this flight:

Outbound: DL 5 JFK to LHR on 12/25/13 in Business
Return: VS025 LHR to JFK on 1/3/14 in Upper Class

When I try to book this pair on Delta it comes out to $4,451 (vs. $2,354) if I booked DL flights both ways. I go over to VA and the same itinerary prices out at $4,040. The interesting thing is that on VA it shows me the pricing of the separate legs and the JFK-LHR leg on DL is showing $2,723 with the LHR-JFK leg on VA at only $1,317. This makes me think that if I try to mix the DL and VA legs on either website it is pricing out as two separate one way tickets. Is that right? This doesn't seem quite right to me. I thought the point of the alliance was to provide more seamless flight options. What's better about paying essentially two one way fares on one website? I could have just done that before (though granted not earned any SM on the VA leg).

I will probably just book RT on DL coded flights (so back on DL 2) but was hoping to be able to get that later flight back. :(

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I've noticed similar oddities for VS flights.

I just called Delta and the representative wasn't really able to tell me why. She thought it might be because VA is only providing higher class fares to Delta so I'm assuming that is also probably what is happening on the VA website. Some boon this alliance is ending up being!

I assume you mean Virgin Atlantic, which is VS, not VA.

Why would you not earn SM with VS?

Currently, they are code sharing all the flights on DL and VS. They are anticipated to finalize the JV around January 2014.

Virgin Atlantic (VS) and DL don't yet have their joint venture approved, so they can't yet legally collude on pricing and inventory. Therefore, their flights are subject to their own fare rules and availability, which aren't coordinated.

I would expect this to change once the joint venture receives approval and is implemented.

(The DL corporate purchase of 49% of Virgin Atlantic, the codesharing agreement, and the reciprocal frequent flyer recognition is what has been completed; that's separate from the anti-trust immunity and joint venture.)

That may well be true (other than the V Aus slip), but I would think they could easily combine on a half round basis w/o any legal issues.

Of course, that would imply dl.com can implement "easy". :confused:

My guess, based on the OP's description, was that the fare class availability and fare rules aren't aligned for the right availability to be there for the interline round trip ticket. I didn't mean to imply that DL and VS can't legally sell round trip tickets on the two airlines with one way fares based on round trip purchase; I meant that they can't collude to align fare rules and availability to ensure that round trip availability matches.

In fact the (full) fare rules for the DL Z fare JFK-LHR on the OP's dates say this (emphasis added):

THE FARE COMPONENT MUST NOT BE ON
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
ANY DL FLIGHT OPERATED BY VS.
AND
THE FARE COMPONENT MUST BE ON
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
ANY DL FLIGHT
ANY AF FLIGHT
ANY AZ FLIGHT OPERATED BY AZ
ANY AZ FLIGHT OPERATED BY AP
ANY KL FLIGHT
ANY BE FLIGHT
ANY HA FLIGHT
ANY AS FLIGHT

I expect that restriction in the fare rules will go away once the joint venture is approved.